September 12, 2005

The Armadillo Podcast

I'm sure you've heard, or at least I hope you've heard, the lyrics "I want go home with the armadillo," to quote the song by Gary P. Nunn, "to the friendliest people and prettiest women you've ever seen." The rest of the world knows this song as simply the "Home with the Armadillo" anthem, of PBS's Austin City Limits.

Most of Austin, at least I hope most of Austin, knows this song by its real title, "London Homesick Blues."

Like many a sad country tune, this song is set to a chipper beat. When you hear the first few strains that they play on Austin City Limits, it's easy to think this is an upbeat song. But this is truly a sad, sad song.

The forlorn and homesick Texan protagonist of the song complains that it's "cold over here and I wish they'd turn the heat on." The local Londoners complain that he's "from down South and when you open your mouth, you always seem to put you foot there."

In the spirit of this song I'm going to be putting my foot firmly in mouth with a weekly podcast of ostentatious interviews of Austinites famous and infamous, known and unknown. My sole intent is to convince my good friend Galia, an Israeli woman living way out in California, to move and live with us here in the land of the weird and the home of the armadillo. Or, to put it another way, I hope to make her homesick for a place she has only visited once.

If you have a friend you'd like to move here as well, or if you would like to send Galia an email with your own favorite story about Austin, send us an email and perhaps we'll interview you on our next podcast.